I am a mother/teacher/rabbi's wife. These are some of my adventures with kids!

Saturday, 17 August 2013

Send it away-Ki Tetzei

Parashat Ki Tetzei is chocked full of mitzvot. Some are things to stay far away from, like marrying a female POW, and some to keep close, like tzitzit. One that I have always found interesting is shiloach ha'ken, sending away the mother bird before taking her eggs. The Torah states that the reward to this is a long life. There is a great Torah debate as to why this reward is stated, and if it is for this world or the world to come. Without the great halachic debate, the message is still of universal importance. Everyone has feelings. Even animals. Try to avoid hurting feelings.

I had a baking project planned for this, but while at a children's museum, I was inspired by something which could be done in the classroom more easily. This is dedicated to everyone in Australia, where this parasha falls out during the school year.

On paper I free handed pictures of a bird, nest, and eggs and gave each picture to one of the girls to color in. With advance notice these would be printed from clip art and colored in. Each girl cut out her picture (Ruti had some help). And then a drinking straw was cut into one inch sections. Two straw pieces were taped to the back of the bird, parallel, about half an inch apart.I taped to the wall the bird's nest with the eggs placed inside. On the wall were also two long lanyard strings, tried together. A piece of lanyard runs through each straw piece.

Cohava pulled the strings apart and watched the bird 'fly' out of the nest.